Subscribe to Posts
Twitter
Facebook
Last.fm
Feb 3rd: The day the music died
February 3rd, 1959 – The Day The Music Died. Buddy (Charles H. Holley) Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P “Big Bopper” Richardson tragically were called away from this World when their plane crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa. The three rock and roll musicians had been part of a Midwestern tour covering 24 cities in three weeks. Buddy Holly chartered the ill-fated plane to transport his band members and himself from Clear Lake to Moorhead, Minnesota. Holly’s band members ended up trading their seats – The Big Bopper, who was suffering with the flu requested a seat on the plane (the tour bus lacked heating), and later, Valens would win a coin toss for the remaining seat.
Don McClean, as you can guess within the lyrics to “American Pie” pays his tribute to the trio of prominent rock and roll stars. McClean, before becoming an established singer/songwriter was a newspaper delivery boy, and you can only imagine what he felt as he delivered the news on that sad February morning in 1959 with perhaps, the beginnings of his famous ode forming in his head. McClean goes on to reference many more references to rock and roll music throughout the song – he didn’t want to miss anybody out, which explains the length of the song… Bob Dylan (The jester), The Monotones, James Dean, Elvis, The Beatles, The Byrds, The Rolling Stones, Woodstock, Janis Joplin are all referenced in the 8+ minute song.
Bye bye Miss America Pie, bye bye Rock and Roll.
